The Dark Corners of Charter Psychiatric

I was working at Charter Hospital in Sugarland when I finally crashed in my alcoholism. It was a child and adolescent psychiatric facility for most of my stay there, but for awhile also had adults. There was an adult chemical dependency unit run and general psych unit upstairs. Not far from the hospital was a prison. I could sit on the loading dock to smoke cigarettes on break and hear gunshots from there.

An expose on Charter was aired on CBS's 60 Minutes in which an employer/spy/reporter named Terrance Johnson wore a camera in his eyeglasses and a recorder in his pants. At the time the company had hospitals across the country, 91 of them.

What eventually was disclosed was that in at least 20 of the hospitals there was evidence of dangerousness in patient care, falsied records and inadequately qualified staff giving patient care. 3 hospitals were subsquently closed.

I lived in Sugarland for awhile before coming to Louisville in these apartments on Austin Parkway not far from the hospital.